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Frigid temperatures and the combination of sleet and freezing rain Friday night did not deter hundreds of Ohio State students from filling the Hitchcock Hall Auditorium for “A PostSecret Event: An Evening with Frank Warren” presented by the Residence Halls Advisory Council.
Frank Warren, the creator of the PostSecret blogspot, spoke about his experiences with an art project where people anonymously submit a postcard depicting a secret they have never shared with anyone.
“I think we all have secrets, and everyday we are faced with the choice to bury those secrets or share them like gifts,” Warren told the audience.
Warren began his talk by asking the audience how many people out there had ever submitted a PostSecret postcard before. Although only a few students raised their hands, almost everyone in the audience raised theirs when asked how many people have been to the PostSecret Web site.
Three years ago, Warren began printing blank self-addressed postcards and handing them out to strangers in Washington D.C., simply asking them to create a postcard depicting a secret they had never told anyone and sending it to his home. Initially, Warren received only one or two postcards a week.
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Warren began displaying these postcards in an art show in Washington D.C., and it became popular for the four to five weeks the exhibit was on display. As the exhibit grew in popularity, Warren began receiving postcards from outside the Washington D.C. area and people’s homemade postcards.
Warren knew he had tapped into something he described as “beautiful and mysterious.” Thus, the PostSecret blogspot was created, and today he receives about 100 to 200 postcards daily. He explained his decision to move the project to a blog, because he liked the immediacy of blogs and the new type of conversation they create. When the HarperCollins publishing company approached Warren about creating a book version of PostSecret, he agreed because he believed books could serve as archives of secrets.
“Books are narratives of all of us told by our secrets,” he said.
Warren said the project brought him “a new appreciation for people’s interior lives, and it shows the heroism and frailty” of people.
As Warren spoke, he showed postcards on a screen that did not make it into his most recent book, “A Lifetime of Secrets.” Each postcard drew a different reaction from the audience and a different story from Warren.
One postcard was about a person who, as a child, found his mother’s diaphragm and wore it as a hat, thinking it was a yarmulke, only to find out its true purpose later in life. The person wrote on the postcard that he never shared this anecdote with anyone.
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Warren pointed out that everyone can relate to stories about young children misinterpreting the adult world.
Not all the secrets Warren shared sparked laughter.
“There are two kinds of secrets,” he said. “The first kinds are the ones we keep from others, and the others are the ones we keep from ourselves.”
One postcard was written on a Hallmark thank-you card. The message was one of thanks for the people who always kept the individual from committing suicide. Warren identified themes he sees again and again on postcards: eating disorders, suicide, self-hurt and loneliness.
Warren discussed the importance of sharing one’s feelings and secrets with others.
“Secrets that surprise me are the common confessions that capture the whole human spectrum,” he said.
After speaking, Warren invited audience members to come up to a microphone and share their own secrets and stories. Initially, students came up to ask him more questions about PostSecret.
Once Amy, a student from the University of Cincinnati who came with her boyfriend, stepped forward and revealed her secret, a steady stream of students began lining up to share their own secrets.
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Not only did students reveal their secrets, but some talked about how PostSecret has helped them. Others offered advice and support to students who had already shared their secrets with the audience.
“It was scary, but good to know I could share a secret with a whole room of strangers,” said Allie Bunyan, a freshman in psychology. “I knew if I didn’t go up there, I would regret not taking the opportunity to take the chance.”
After all the students finished speaking, Warren closed the event by revealing his own secret about a humiliating situation that happened to him in the fourth grade, which he said served as inspiration for the PostSecret project. After the presentation, Warren signed copies of his book, “A Lifetime of Secrets.”
Warren said he found the experience of revealing his secret “cathartic,” and had to find the “strength to face his own secret.”
Fariba Massah, director of diversity and wellness for RHAC, was pleased with the success and turnout for the event.
“The most rewarding part was when everyone was opening up,” she said.
Danielle Devery can be reached at [email protected].
